Yesterday I rocked up to the Dig It UKA Camping Show. I hadn’t entered and wasn’t camping as I have so much going on, but I’d got a free day so went along to help, take some photographs and perhaps pay on the day to run some classes NFC with Guinness.

As I arrived and walked Guinness around the huge exercise area I decided I wasn’t going to enter him. I was enjoying taking him for a walk, he was having a great run and that’s all we needed. We’ve had a funny week of training and neither of us are in the right place for quickly getting ready for a competition run in between helping, plus I wanted to enjoy the day watching some agility and helping my club.

We were in a new venue and the site was absolutely stunning! A big field beautifully surrounded by rolling fields and neighbourhood farms.

But it was SO windy! We were in the field with the wind turbine, which as every said; “they don’t put them in places that get no wind”, but yesterday was something else! Jumps were dropping like flies and we must have pegged nearly all of the down in the end. The seesaw was removed from the Power & Speed due to the down end lifting up in the wind, and a few peoples tents were looking worryingly flat. But the sun shined all day and the wind did drop slightly by late afternoon! I’d had a body warmer and a jacket on all day and it wasn’t until I got in my car to leave that I realised how pink my face was! Whoops. Aftersun out for the first time since January.

The competition was great to watch and I enjoyed cheering on the beginners as well as admiring the handling from the higher levels. It was fantastic to watch Vannessa & Anna competing ahead of their training workshops this week. (Although sadly I cant spare the days off work to attend).

I’m really pleased with my photography from yesterday and each time I use my new D7100 I am getting quicker at adjusting the settings and finding my fingers on the right buttons. Katie & I have been keen to get some photos of Milo for ages so we happily headed into the field while we had some time to spare. Poor Milo was having his own problems with the wind!

As the day came to a close and the show finished there were a handful of us left helping to set up the courses for the next day, sort the ring boxes out, pack away the PA system and close up the secretary tent. I’m no stranger to the amount of work agility shows take to organise and run, but I was really reminded about how much there is to do behind the scenes, especially at a camping shows. Once we’d finished I went for a final walk with Katie and Michelle and some of their dogs. “We should get a photo of them all!” I said… famous last words! Being collies Guinness and Indie sat and stayed still immediately (of course) but the gundogs were finding it a little bit harder and it took a few minutes for Dave the labrador to drag his head out of the bush to come over! But we managed it eventually, hurrah!

I was quite sad to be leaving and not staying to camp, but saying that I was very glad to get home to the sofa, eat a lasagna and sit down with my laptop to start processing some images. There’s always next year!!